Altered Books, Art Journals, whatever you like to call it I call them amazing! You can take any book, paint it, collage it, fold it or tear it and make it yours. Add some swatches of fabric, paint chips, some vintage ephemera and you have a great piece of art to enjoy that you personalized and created on your own. Here’s a round up of interesting, eclectic and artistic altered books for you to enjoy.

At the end I’ve posted the name of the winner from my last post! Maybe it’s you!

1. This is a pretty incredible example of an altered book way before Altered Books became cool.

This great blog post is brought to us by CappuccinoAndArtJournal and you’ll want to check out the other pages that she has posted from this antique journal, great stuff!

2. How incredible is this?

This book was taught at the MacLean County Arts Center in Bloomington, IL a year ago. How amazing is this? I would love to take this class! “Bring in some of your old books and turn them into art by cutting, drawing, gluing, collage, and just about anything you might think of to alter the state of an almost forgotten form of literature.” WOW!

This is a stunning example of objects bursting out of the page, so lovely! The contrast between the plain images in the book and the colorful dimensional butterflies is wonderful.

5. One of my favorite artists is Ingrid Dijikers. I feel very fortunate to have taken a class with her at Art & Soul in Portland, OR several years ago. We created the beginnings of a book in her class “Through the Rabbit Hole”.

All of her work is so incredibly artistic and even her doodles are perfectly placed. Check out her blog to see more of her amazing work!

6. This is super cute!

I found it on Tumblr so I’m not sure who to give the credit to. If anyone knows, let me know and I’ll update this!

I’m planning on borrowing some design elements, (like the folded over page to create a pocket!) from it to document my last couple vacations when I finally get around to creating books about them!

10. And this heart shaped book is stunning. I believe it was created by FlyinPurpleMunkiez.

I love how it has hidden spaces to keep treasured items!

Thanks for joining me on this journey through altered books!

Have a wonderfully creative week!

xo,

Christine Barker

PS: The winner from my last post is number 8, which is Patty Antle!!! Congrats Patty! Please visit my Etsy shop and choose one of the Pin Cushions priced at $15 and email me at kryztyne @ gmail.com (remove spaces) to let me know which one you’ve chosen. Thank you to everyone who left a comment, I appreciate you playing along!

It’s taken me years to feel brave enough to have my own booth at a flea market. I have a collection of things that I’ve been collecting for years, (plus a couple collections that I’m ready to call it quits with), all with the intention of selling them in my own personal boutique at a flea market. When I heard about the Behind the Picket Fence Marketplace, I just knew I had to give it a try. Well, first I thought about it and changed my mind a bunch of times, but in the end I made the leap and I’m so happy that I finally did it!

Thankfully I had a petit army of people to help me with my state of mind and artfully arranging my booth. Going into this event I was scared as could be, but knowing that my sweet husband and son would be there to help me set up and sell gave me some peace of mind. They were spectacular helpers, setting up the booth, doing the heavy lifting, greeting customers as they stopped by and handing out my business cards. Trevor even had a side business going selling some of the hundreds of burlap coffee bean bags that I had for sale. (If you want some, please just let me know! I have a few left!)

And I’m so thankful for my friend, Deb Kennedy, who’s an extraordinary Writer, Stylist, Designer and Speaker based out of Orange County, CA. When I put out the SOS for help to foof up my booth and give it some decorator savvy, she answered the call. I was petrified that I would set up the booth and it wouldn’t look like the picture that I had in my head. Deb came to the rescue and got right to work, rearranging items, placing them just right and using items in ways that I NEVER would have thought of. Plus, she took all of these beautiful photos!

Left to my own devices I would more than likely just put things out on the table but Deb knew just how to display things so that they would be shown to their best advantage. Like the vintage fruit picking sack, and the dress form, and the shabby chic tea pot with gloves.

I also had a selection of my handmade Union Flag aprons and pillows, burlap pillows, and fancy pincushions available for sale.

I created a variety of decor to give my booth my style so that people would know as soon as they saw it what I was all about. Several people asked if I would sell my fabric garland but I told them I’d have to charge them over $100 since it pretty much took me an entire day and too much fabric to create. I can’t sell it, it’s too pretty!

Burlap and rose decorations.

Petticoats on a parasol.

And, I hand painted a sign with my name to let people know who I was.

And finally, I had a photo booth to take pics of some willing shoppers as they stopped by.

All in all it was a wonderful day! I felt great because I finally conquered my fear of participating in a flea market, I cleared out some of my inventory and I got to spend the day with some wonderful people. It meant so much to me for people that I knew to stop by my booth because it was so nice to see familiar faces and when they gave me compliments about my booth I was over the moon! I think I’m ready for the next challenge now, I’ve got this!

Thanks so much for stopping by! I have some of these items and more listed in my Etsy shop if you are interested in purchasing them.

Also, this is my 125th post so I think that’s a reason to celebrate! I’ll be giving away one of my pin cushions to one lucky person who likes this post and leaves a comment here on the blog. Who wants to win?